Using shock waves and micro-nanostructures for gene and drug delivery

Kendall, Mark A. F. (2006). Using shock waves and micro-nanostructures for gene and drug delivery. In: Abstracts of the 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Fourth Joint Meeting of The Acoustical Society of America and The Acoustical Society of Japan, Honolulu, Hawaii, (). 28 November - 2 December 2006. doi:10.1121/1.4787342

Efficiently and safely delivering biomolecules to the skin’s immunologically sensitive cells holds the promise of advancing radical new drugs, vaccines, and immunotherapies for major diseases [D. Chen et al., Expert Rev Vaccines 1(3): 89–100 (2002)]. Here I present research into using shock waves and micro‐nanostructures to meet this goal. First, I analyze the physiology and immunology of the skin target and then introduce current physical approaches for targeting these cells for the immunotherapy [M. A. F. Kendall, Vaccine May 22; 24(21): 4651–656 (2006)]. Then, I focus on biolistics—accelerating with a helium flow micro‐particles coated in DNA to ballistically penetrate the human skin in order to achieve an immunological effect [M.A.F. Kendall, Shock Waves J., 12(1), 22–30 (2002)]. I present key findings on the engineering of these devices, skin physical interactions induced by micro‐particle impact and the resultant local biological responses. Finally, I introduce a micro‐nanoprojection array patch technology, highlighting key advantages over biolistics, including the prevention of cell‐death from shock impact with key cells.